Issue(s): Avengers West Coast annual #6
Cover Date: 1991
Title: "A storm in Subterranea / A Wasp in Hollywood! / Justice, like lightning"
Credits:
Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas - Writer
George Freeman / Jeffrey Moore / Steven Carr - Penciler
Dan Bulanadi, Andrew Pepoy, & Bob Wiacek / Mark McKenna / George Wildman - Inker
Nel Yomtov - Editor

Review/plot:
As i did with the last chapter of Subterranean Wars, i'm going to start with the back-ups, or at least one of them. This focuses on Living Lightning, who goes home to his family. But when he gets home (after being away for weeks because he was kidnapped by Dr. Demonicus), his mom passes out.

It turns out that his sister was killed in a gang drive-by. Miguel's younger brother, Jose, is in a gang, it turns out, and his gang is in conflict with a rival Vietnamese gang. Miguel had a Vietnamese girlfriend, but she's left him for the leader of the Vietnamese gang, since he wasn't around.

Living Lightning later tries to break up a fight between the two gangs, while suppressing his own desire for revenge...

...but he winds up not making any friends. His brother gets arrested (and it was Living Lightning that called the police).

I covered that back-up first because Living Lightning is still pretty upset about it all in the main story.

Poor Scarlet Witch is pretty upset too, having to listen to Spider-Woman drone on about her daughter. And i would never have guessed that USAgent kept such a messy room. For all his other faults, he seems like a really disciplined guy.

Anyway, Iron Man shows up with Kala and explains the Subterranean War situation. As i mentioned in Avengers annual #20, basically nothing has progressed since then and all the East Coast Avengers are held captive. So the West Coast team heads into Subterranea, locates Captain America and the Black Widow buried under some boulders along the way and then confront Brutus and free the East Coasters.

As Michael notes in the comments, Wonder Man apparently isn't above taking out a few Moloids as collateral damage.

Mole Man had been ignoring Kala since she returned, but that changes after she takes a spear for him.

The turning point is when it turns out that Brutus is a Mutate, not a Deviant.

I already noted in chapter one that i think that's a distinction without a difference, but we have seen the Deviants going through purges, so i guess this is sort of the same thing. The other Mutates kill him.

Anyway, the final twist is that Grotesk hasn't really given up his goal of destroying humanity, so he has to be stopped too.

In the end, the Mole Man is inspired by Kala to provide a cure to Tyrannus, who was poisoned by Brutus in the Hulk annual. But no good deed goes unpunished, and we see Tyrannus thinking about taking over Kala's kingdom in the final panel.

As i mentioned in the beginning of this event, what i would want from a Subterranean War is, like, a war between the Subterranean kingdoms. Things started off well but then we had three tangential chapters and then what feels like a very rushed conclusion that is more about the Avengers punching things and, more than anything, Brutus not being what he claimed to be. And i know that some people like Tom Morgan, but i find his art to be very messy, contributing to the rushed feeling of this story.

Two more back-ups: one is just Spider-Woman's orientation, as she watches a video narrating all of the West Coast Avengers' adventures. I'm not going to list them as references since the video is very comprehensive and i think i would wind up linking to every past West Coast Avengers story. The second is about the Wasp trying to sell her screenplay about the origin of the Avengers and getting frustrated when the Hollywood exec tries to re-write everything.

I think she shouldn't sell the rights, and hold out hope that Marvel will eventually be able to make its own movies that will stick closer to the spirit of the original comics.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Living Lightning story is said to take place "a few hours" after Avengers West Coast #74, but he is still pretty upset about it at the beginning of this annual, so i am covering it in the same entry. This is the final chapter of Subterranean Wars.

References:

• Miguel Santos became the Living Lightning in Avengers West Coast #63 while exploring his father's secret base from Tales To Astonish #97-99.
  
• After that he was held captive by Dr. Demonicus, as seen in Avengers West Coast #70-74.
  
• Kala went to Iron Man in Iron Man annual #12.
  
• The East coast Avengers were captured in Avengers annual #20.
  
• USAgent wonders why they should help the Mole Man. He says that he "Never met the guy personally but he's wreaked enough havoc in the past that he rates a whole file cabinet back at the commission". It may be literally true that USAgent never met the Mole Man, but he helped fight off a Mole Man attack in Avengers West Coast #54.
  
• Tyrannus was poisoned in Hulk annual #17.
  
• The Wasp's back-up references her origin from Tales To Astonish #44 and also the formation of the Avengers in Avengers #1.

Crossover: Subterranean Wars

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

That thing about the Hulk rights being used by Universal is actually fairly spot on. Also, "Hunk" rhymes with "Krunk", just saying.

Maybe U.S.Agent just lost something and is having a frustrating time finding it?

Note that the Avengers West Coast talk like the Commission is supposed to be top-secret- but Valerie Cooper was described as the head of the Commission in a PRESS CONFERENCE in Captain America 351.
Note that in the Namor Annual killing the Subterraneans was treated like murder but in this issue Wonder Man squashes several Subterraneans with a boulder in order to stop several Deviants.
I was disappointed when I read this issues because Avengers Annual 20 suggested the captured Avengers would be brainwashed and I was expecting a fight between the Avengers and the Avengers West Coast.

I meant to add that Wonder Man scene. It is pretty callous.

I'd say killing even Mutates is pretty unusual, but i've noted before that the Avengers' no killing rule does seem to get put on hold for warlike situations, especially with non-humans.

[Ant-Man movie minor spoiler warning]

Maybe Jan should have gone with that screenplay, cause when Marvel does get to that point of being able to make their own movies, they kill her off in a flashback.

@Michael

Yeah, but... How many people listen to those press conferences, right? :D

Eriks must think alike. Erik Robbins said exactly what I was going to say.